In 1981, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) decided to make top-quality cancer care available to patients who lived far from academic medical centers. In that year, it established the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP). The initiative coincided with the movement of a large number of well-trained medical oncologists from academic centers to smaller community-based practices. Over 25 years later, the CCOP program has a solid foundation and has dramatically improved access of cancer patients to NCI-sponsored clinical trials of innovative new cancer therapies, cancer preventive strategies, and interventions to reduce the symptoms associated with cancer.

The CCOP network consists of approximately 50 NCI-designated CCOPs and approximately one dozen "minority-based CCOPs" across the United States, Cancer and Puerto Rico. Over 2600 physicians and over 400 hospitals participate in the program. July 2005, the NCI designated Heartland Cancer Research (Heartland) as a CCOP. Among Heartland’s goals are to:

• Introduce newly developed cancer prevention, early detection techniques, treatment and symptom management interventions to populations in Eastern Missouri, including medically under-served rural communities.

• Supply a broad menu of cancer research protocols to oncologists in those areas.

• Offer participation in cancer prevention research to metropolitan and rural communities of eastern Missouri through NCI-sponsored cooperative groups.

• Increase the general public’s appreciation of the value of clinical trials as a selection criterion for quality cancer care.

• Collect and provide accurate data and protect the safety and rights of the patients who have agreed to participate in the studies.

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